Vera is 91, an old world Leftie. Her grandson, Leo, is 21, a new age Hippie. After a cross-country trip, Leo turns up at Vera’s New York apartment with a backpack, a bike and no money. She agrees to let him spend the night; a few weeks later, he’s still there. Leo is at a bad place with his parents, his girlfriend wants to break up, and something terrible happened on his trip. As Vera listens—when her hearing aid is turned on—we listen, with compassion. This odd couple has grabbed our hearts and will not let go. They are, as The New York Times says, “Altogether wonderful.”

Recommendation: The play contains adult language.Running Time: Approximately one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.

Amy Herzog has written numerous plays including After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center; Obie Award for Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons) and Belleville (Yale Repertory Theatre; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist; Drama Desk nomination). Herzog is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill Award, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova and the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. She taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. She earned her MFA from Yale School of Drama.

Matt Caplan as Leo Jospeh-Connell. On Broadway he appeared in Rent, South Pacific and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and he appeared regionally in American Idiot. His television and film appearances include “New Amsterdam,” “NCIS,” Ambivalence, Across the Universe and Painting Abby Long. Caplan is from New York by way of Virginia, where he studied theater at the Governor’s School for the Arts. He is also a songwriter.

Rebecca Mozo as Bec. Mozo appeared at SCR last season in The Parisian Woman, and also in In the Next Room or the vibrator play, A Wrinkle in Time, Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, The Heiress and Doubt, a parable. Her other theatre credits include We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia at The Matrix Theatre Company; The Savannah Disputation (Ovation Award nomination), Trying (Ovation Award nomination) at The Colony Theatre Company; The Cherry Orchard opposite Annette Bening and Alfred Molina at Center Theatre Group; and Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Peace in Our Time, King Lear, Cousin Bette, Pera Palas and The Dresser at The Antaeus Company, where she is a member. Her film and television credits include The Repatriate, Headless Horseman, The Waterhole, “Pizza Time,” “Cold Case,” “The Young and the Restless” and “Medium.” She recently wrapped the web series “Kittens in a Cage.” Mozo earned her BFA from Rutgers University and studied at The Globe Theatre in London.

Klarissa Mesee as Amanda. Mesee can currently she can be seen in Disney’s musical spectacular, Mickey and the Magical Map at the Disneyland Resort. Her other credits include McCoy/Rigby’s Miss Saigon (Ovation Award nomination) and Richard Shermans’ Pazzazz! She also had the honor of originating the role of Scarlet Wong in English Only: A Fight For Words in America. Her film and television credits include “Lost Tapes” for Animal Planet and “Teenage Mountain Lion” (a web series to be released). Mesee is a native of Southern California and earned her BA from The Ray Bolger Musical Theater program at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television.

Jenny O'Hara as Vera Joseph. O'Hara returns to SCR after appearing in Richard Greenberg’s Our Mother’s Brief Affair. On Broadway, she appeared in The Odd Couple (female version), The Iceman Cometh, Promises Promises, The Kid, Fig Leaves Are Falling and Dylan (debut with Alec Guinness). Her off-Broadway credits include John Guare’s New York Actor, Steve Martin’s Wasp, Peter Hedges’ Good as New, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Marathon ’93, Sedalia Run and The Fox. Regionally she appeared in Hello & Goodbye (Yale Repertory), The Fox (Back Alley), Little Egypt (the play and the musical), Bitter Women, Bitten by a Fly, A Skull in Connemara, Bakersfield Mist and Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She has been a series regular on “The King of Queens,” “Costello,” “Life’s Work,” “The Pastor’s Wife,” “My Sister Sam,” “The Facts of Life,” “Secrets of Midland Heights,” “Highcliff Manor” and has made guest appearances on “Emily Owens, M.D.” “Rizzoli and Isles,” “Franklin and Bash,” “CSI,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Drop Dead Diva,” “Boston Legal,” “Philly,” “NYPD Blue,” “Family Law,” “The Practice,” “Roswell,” “Strong Medicine,” “ER,” “Chicago Hope,” “Party of Five,” “Drew Carey Show,” “Murphy Brown,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Law & Order,” “L.A. Law” and many more. Movies of the week include If These Walls Could Talk II, The Color of Courage, My Name is Jane, An Unexpected Family, Robin Cook’s Terminal, A Mother’s Prayer, Happily Ever After, Winnie, V and Black Beauty. Her feature films include BFF, Sassy Pants, Devil, Heavy Lifting, The Hit List, Extract, Matchstick Men, Mystic River, Angie, Career Opportunities and Heartbeat. O’Hara is a founding member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA.

Creative Team

David Emmes (Director/Founding Artistic Director) is co-founder of South Coast Repertory. In May 2008, he received the Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to theatre excellence and to fostering the art and craft of American playwriting. In addition, he has received numerous awards for productions he has directed during his SCR career, including a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for the direction of George Bernard Shaw’s The Philanderer. He directed the world premieres of Amy Freed’s Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon and Freedomland, Thomas Babe’s Great Day in the Morning, Keith Reddin’s Rum and Coke and But Not for Me and Neal Bell’s Cold Sweat; the American premieres of Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for Adults and Joe Penhall’s Dumb Show; and the Southland premiere of Top Girls (at SCR and the Westwood Playhouse). Other productions he has directed include New England by Richard Nelson, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, which he restaged for the Singapore Festival of Arts. He has served as a theatre panelist and onsite evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a panelist for the California Arts Council. He received his BA and MA from San Francisco State University, and his PhD in theatre and film from USC.

Ralph Funicello (Scenic Design) returns for his 27th season at SCR. Among his many SCR credits are the designs for Elemeno Pea, Misalliance, Hamlet, Brooklyn Boy, Major Barbara, The Circle, Private Lives, Six Degrees of Separation, She Stoops to Folly, Speed-The-Plow, Buried Child, Good and Da. His work has been seen on and off-Broadway, and at many resident theatres, including Lincoln Center Theater, Mark Taper Forum, The American Conservatory Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, McCarter Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada, Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Royal Bath and The Old Globe, where he is an associate artist. He has also designed for New York City Opera, L.A. Opera and San Diego Opera. He has received the Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, and his designs have been recognized by the Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle, the LADCC, Drama-Logue, Back Stage West and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. He is currently the Powell Chair in Set Design at San Diego State University

Sara Ryung Clement (Costume Design) returns to SCR where her recent projects include sets and costumes for The Night Fairy and How the World Began, as well as the set design for Absurd Person Singular. Additional regional and local design credits include East West Players, Open Fist Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, Cornerstone Theater Company, Denver Center Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, CenterStage, A Noise Within, Marin Theatre Company, SPF, Elephant Theatre Company and Deaf West Theatre. Clement holds a MFA in design from the Yale School of Drama and received her AB from Princeton University. sararyungclement.com.

Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz (Lighting Design) is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a professional lighting designer. He has designed for various regional theatres, such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, Arizona Theatre Company, Pasadena Playhouse, Great River Shakespeare Festival and Utah Shakespearean Festival. Among the productions he has designed at SCR are Absurd Person Singular, Three Days of Rain, La Posada Mágica, Ordinary Days, Saturn Returns, Goldfish, An Italian Straw Hat, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Doubt, My Wandering Boy and Blue Door. Recent designs include The Federal Jazz Project at San Diego Repertory, Steel Magnolias at East West Players, SEED: A Weird Act of Faith for Cornerstone Theater Company, where he is an associate artist; and Henry the Fifth and Twelfth Night at Great River Shakespeare Festival. He also was a designer for Universal Studios Japan.

Cricket S. Myers (Sound Design) is thrilled to return to SCR after designing The Fantasticks, The Parisian Woman, Sight Unseen, Elemeno Pea, The Trip to Bountiful, Three Days of Rain and Lucky Duck. On Broadway, she earned a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Her designs off-Broadway include The Marvelous Wonderettes (Westside Arts, Upstairs). She has also designed regionally at the Ahmanson Theatre (Sunshine Boys), Mark Taper Forum (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Vigil, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Burn This, The Subject was Roses), La Jolla Playhouse (Sideways, The Nightingale), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (In the Wake), Arena Stage (Book Club Play), Kirk Douglas Theatre (, Come Back Little Sheba), Pasadena Playhouse (Crowns) and Geffen Playhouse (Wrecks, Some Girls, Emergency). Myers has earned 13 Ovation nominations, and won LADCC and Garland awards in Los Angeles.

Sue Karutz (Stage Manager) counts this as her 10th production at SCR and looks forward to more. She has toured with The Black Rider (London, San Francisco, Sydney, L.A.), Wicked (Chicago, L.A., San Francisco), Les Misérables (U.S., Canada, China and Korea) and Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo (Russia and Belgium.) Off-Broadway she earned her Equity card on Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly. Karutz is a graduate of El Camino College, UC Irvine and UC San Diego, has stage managed for Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, Falcon Theatre, Deaf West, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare Festival and The National Theatre of the Deaf, and she also spends some of her time running the show Fantasmic! at Disneyland Resort.

Jamie A. Tucker (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be in his 12th season at SCR. Tucker completed his MFA in dance, specializing in stage management, at the University of California, Irvine in 1994. Since coming to SCR, he has stage-managed or assisted on 61 productions. Some of his favorites have been the world premieres of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, The Violet Hour and The Dazzle; Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow; and Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade. Other favorites include Elemeno Pea, Jitney, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Crimes of the Heart, Fences, Anna in the Tropics, The Trip to Bountiful, A View from the Bridge, Chinglish, Death of a Salesman and Hamlet. He has had the pleasure of working seven seasons on La Posada Magica and five seasons at the helm of A Christmas Carol. If you can’t find him in the theatre, he is likely to be riding his bike down PCH. Tucker is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.

4000 Miles The Long Ride HomeMeet Vera and Leo. Grandmother and grandson. Are they kindred spirits? Using her relationship with her own grandmother for inspiration, playwright Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, helps answer that question.read more